Q. Under CSRS, I worked 17 years as a full-time employee. For the past 17 years, I worked part time only 24 hours per week. I would like to retire in two years with 35 years of service. How is the calculation done? With the new amendment in 2009, I was told by my HR that my retirement is based on my full-time salary rate ($111,000 as a GS-14). But this doesn’t make sense. I will be making more when I retire. Can you help me understand this?
A.Here’s how you annuity will be calculated:
1. The actual hours you worked will be divided by the total full-time hours that you could have worked to obtain a proration factor.
2. The average of your highest three consecutive years of basic pay (your high-3) will then be computed.
3. Your unreduced basic annuity will be computed using the standard formula.
4. The result of the computation will be multiplied by the proration factor obtained in step 1 above. That will be the annuity to which you are entitled.
